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Ramblings from Retirement - Do Not Fear By Retired Pastor Lee Hemen August 13, 2021 Are you fearful? Are you afraid? Some people like being scared or the feeling of fear. They will even do things in life to make themselves feel fear. Like bungee jumping from high places, climbing cliffs without any pinions or tie downs, or skydiving. Some will go to horror movies but then there are also those who keep themselves in a constant state of fear simply because they do not trust themselves, others, or Jesus to keep them. This is truly sad. Today is Friday the 13th and some folks are fearful of the date; kind of silly, if you ask me, but they are. Perhaps it is because they would rather live in a state of fear rather than peace. The news brings in to our lives a constant barrage of tragedy, horrors, and dismal happenings. My advice is to turn the news off and go read your Bible or listen to some good music. The world is full of fear and will not change until we go to our eternal rest or Jesus ...

Ramblings from Retirement – Scaredy-cats By Retired Pastor Lee Hemen April 27, 2021 There is a little grey cat that lives next door that thinks she is a mighty bird hunter. In fact she has already killed at least 3 birds at my front yard feeder and at least 2 in the backyard. So we have begun to keep an eye out for her and when she heads into or across our yard we chase her away. The other day she was in the midst of stalking some finches who were feeding. In the middle of her final stalk where she was bunching up to jump I opened the door and hissed real loud. She jumped about four feet, twisted in the air, and ran off like she was shot out of a cannon. It was hilarious and reminded me of a passage that the Apostle Paul wrote his friend Timothy: “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. (2 Timothy 1:7 NIV84)” Paul was writing a young pastor who was facing all kinds of struggles within the local church and outside of the churc...

Ramblings from Retirement – Don’t follow the flock! By Retired Pastor Lee Hemen April 7, 2021 I was watching a small flock of sparrows in my backyard this morning as they hopped and fluttered around the feeders we have out there and how they would all move at once together. In fact when a raucous blue jay flew in, because it was much larger and scarier, the entire flock took off in a flash of feathers and tweeters. As soon as the blue jay left, they all came back at once. This made think of how a lot of people respond to the world around them; they only react as the rest of the crowd reacts. If it is in fear then they are fearful, if it is to follow some convoluted idea they willingly swallow it, and if the rest of the group does it then they will as well. My mother would ask us as kids when we ignorantly followed the crowd, “If your friends jumped off a bridge would you follow them?” Now I know that God created a natural instinct in those little sparrows to protect them from predators...

Ramblings from Retirement: The only thing we have to fear is… By Lee Hemen (Retired Pastor) October 24, 2020 There is a famous line from Franklin Delano Roosevelt, often referred to by his initials FDR who said in one of his speeches, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”; sounds pithy doesn’t it? It helped a lot of folks during the crisis of the Depression and looming World War II that they could face their fear and move on as a Nation. Yet in our day and age we have politicians who focus on our fears and try to scare us into voting for them or otherwise we will face doom, gloom, and even death! It is a basement mentality and I fear has a lot of folks fooled in our day into thinking that we’re all gonna die from something. Well guess what? We are. The writer of the Book of Hebrews in the Bible wrote that “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” meaning we will all die at some point and face that same judgment. However he doesn’t stop there but c...

Ramblings from Retirement: Finding Rest in a Fearful World By Lee Hemen October 8, 2020 The dictionary defines alienation as “the state or experience of being isolated from a group or an activity to which one should belong or in which one should be involved.” If furthers goes on to state that there can be a loss of sympathy and an estrangement that occurs. This is evidenced by those who stay away from worship for any length of time and why the writer of Hebrews would state: “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:23-25 NIV)” When we stay away from those that we are told to fellowship with we become alienated from them. When we stay away from the One we are supposed to daily talk with we also become ali...

The Praise of Men - John 12:37-43 By Pastor Lee Hemen August 16, 2015 There's a saying that states, "Different strokes for different folks and some folks need a lot of strokes." I have always found it disconcerting people need constant affirmation for every little thing they do. The need for constant affirmation has created a self-indulgent and narcissistic generation. Of course this is nothing new; there have always been those who love the accolades of the adoring crowds, even if it is forced. It has been likened to a narcotic and those who become hooked need their fix often. Starlets, politicians, dictators, and now even the more common folk look for ways to be recognized, adulated, revered, and remembered. Instagram and Facebook postings that record our every waking moment, and the regurgitation our lives on the Tweetersphere are all part of this self-absorbed lifestyle. We love the praise of others, the praise of men. In fact, many of us live in fear of losing the pra...